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Longmont adopts online sex offender system aimed to ease searches

By Pierrette J. ShieldsLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
01/17/2013 08:31:55 PM MST

Updated:
01/18/2013 12:09:38 PM MST

Longmont police officers Robert Black, left, and Randy Lucero visit homes of registered sex offenders Tuesday. Addresses for known sex offenders are being verified for Sex Offender Tracking and Registry, an online program that will allow residents to learn if there are sex offenders in their neighborhoods.
(
LEWIS GEYER
)

LONGMONT -- A new online database should make it easier for residents to learn about registered sex offenders living in the city, according to the Longmont Police Department.

Detective Stacey Graham led the effort for the city to abandon a police beat-based registry map in favor of a multiagency online database called SOTAR, or Sex Offender Tracking and Registry. Longmont and the Boulder County Sheriff's Office have been working to integrate the searchable system for about a year.

The new system allows residents to search for registered sex offenders generally in the city or by entering an address and searching for offenders within a specific distance of that address. Residents also may sign up for email alerts that are sent when a new sex offender registers within selected parameters, such as within a mile of the registrant's home.

"We're trying to get the other Boulder County jurisdictions up and running, as well," Graham said.

Graham and several other police employees have been working to enter all of the eligible sex offenders into the online system, including their addresses, mug shots, descriptions, convictions and associated vehicles. Of about 224 registered sex offenders in the city, Graham said, 74 meet the state's legal criteria to be listed online. Getting the baseline information into the system has been time consuming, she said, and she and others are still working on it. Sometimes there can be a delay after a new offender moves into the city.

"Web eligible" offenders include adults convicted of a felony sex offense or a second or subsequent misdemeanor sex offense, including sexual assault, unlawful sexual contact, sexual assault on a client, sexual exploitation of a child by possession of exploitative material, indecent exposure and sexual conduct in a penal institution. Juvenile offenders may be listed if convicted of two or more crimes that involved illegal sexual behavior or a crime of violence, or if convicted of a crime that would have been a felony had the juvenile been an adult.

Police note that the online list will not include all sex offenders, though residents can request a full list from the police department, and that convictions may not be a good indicator of risk.

"Unfortunately, most sex offenders are somebody that you know," Graham said.

The system, developed and maintained by the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, includes more than 40 Colorado agencies. Graham said law enforcement officers have special access to the system that offers more information beyond the public listings and that officers can access listings from any of the member agencies.

Officers hit the streets Tuesday to check on current registrants to make sure they were current on their legal requirements and that they still lived at the addresses listed.

"The officers can do a house check and they can actually update information on the street and it can go into the file," Graham said.

The new system also allows an offender's file to follow them from jurisdiction to jurisdiction easily so long as the new agency also uses the SOTAR system.

Graham said the system alerts her when a new offender is scheduled to register in the city and when a registration is overdue.

"They are kind of out there screaming, 'Look at me,'" she said.

She said the system is geocoded from Google maps, so some registrations are imprecise because Google hasn't been able to keep up with all of the city's growth. However, the addresses are in the ballpark.

"It does put the person in the general area, but it is not capable of putting in their exact residence," she said.

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